Congressional budget talks continue

Published: Wednesday, November 10, 1999

WASHINGTON {AP} Budget bargainers shook hands on money for hiring police and zeroed in on other deals Tuesday, but hopes that Congress would adjourn by midweek faded amid fights over teachers, United Nations dues and other issues.

New hurdles also cropped up. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Western state senators seeking eased restrictions on gold and other hard-rock mines were uniting with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who is defying the Clinton administration and wants legislation letting Eastern coal mines dump tons of waste into nearby valleys and streams.

Four years after President Clinton and the Republican Congress squared off over whether entire agencies should be abolished and spending slashed, their gap in this year's budget fight is far more modest. Final agreement has proven elusive as both sides struggle for victories they can tout to voters next year.

For example, the highest-profile issue pits Clinton's demand for $1.4 billion for hiring teachers against the GOP's insistence on $1.2 billion communities could use for teacher hiring, training or other school purposes.

"This is a political world," said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.